1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates broadly to clamp-type garment hangers with clamp assemblies that include non-slip surfaces for positively gripping garments, and more particularly to clamp-type garment hangers wherein the exposed surface of the garment gripping pad is made of resilient friction material for positively gripping the garments.
2. State of the Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,634, issued Apr. 6, 1999 to Zuckerman et al., describes disadvantages of clamp-type garment hangers which do not have gripping pads in the clamps and proposes a solution. The Zuckerman solution provides a clamp-type garment hanger including a hook, a cross-bar and two garment clamp assemblies. The hook extends upwardly from the cross-bar for suspending the garment hanger from a support location. The clamp assemblies are located on opposite ends of the cross-bar for securing a garment to the garment hanger. Each clamp assembly includes a first clamping member, a second clamping member, and means for biasing the first and second clamping members toward one another and into abutting engagement with a garment located between the clamping members. Each clamp assembly includes at least one clamping member having an inner clamping surface defined at least in part by at least one gripping pad. A first side of the gripping pad is carried by the inner clamping surface of the clamping member, and a second side of the gripping pad is presented for contact with a garment to be hung from the garment hanger. Snap-in securing means secure the gripping pad on the clamping member for movement as a unit into and from the clamping position. Preferably, the gripping pad is fabricated from resilient friction material, the coefficient of friction being sufficiently high to preclude movement under the weight of the garment when a normal clamping force is applied to the two clamping members to move them into a clamping position. However, in order to maintain the gripping pad snapped-in to the clamping member, it must be made of sufficiently hard material which does not provide the most desirable coefficient of friction. Although the Zuckerman patent hints that the snap-in side and the frictional side of the gripping pad might be made of different materials, there is no explicit teaching of how this could be done. Moreover, it is clear that to do so would be more complicated and more expensive than making the gripping pads of a single material.